Inagro is setting up two mobile washes for spraying equipment in the last weeks of the year.
Farmers can clean their sprayers there and the residues are also processed free of charge. The car washes are part of an awareness campaign against point pollution. It should also generate attention for the five lending depots that were set up this year in West Flanders, where farmers can borrow material for the collection of leftovers.
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On December 15, West Flemish farmers can go to Kortrijk to prepare their spraying equipment for winter. Inagro has set up a mobile car wash where farmers can clean their sprayers externally on a flushing mat. The residual water is collected and processed. A week later, the mobile installation is moved to Roeselare, where farmers from the region can also come here. You can book a time slot of 1 hour via this link .
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The car wash is part of an awareness campaign by Inagro that aims to draw attention to point pollution. “Farmers are not always aware that the spraying installations also contain chemical residues on the outside that can end up in the surface water after cleaning,” says Jan Vanwijnsberghe, project leader for point pollution at Inagro. “Rinsing on the field is a possible solution, otherwise the water has to be collected.”
“Besides the relative obscurity, misunderstandings also form a barrier. Farmers think that high investments are involved in setting up a safe cleaning area” Jan Vanwijnsberghe – project leader point pollution at Inagro
Misunderstanding about high investment costs
“Besides the relative obscurity, misunderstandings about high investments are also a barrier,” continues Vanwijnsberghe. “Farmers think that they have to set up a separate rinsing place and that they have to incur a lot of costs.” In practice, therefore, a special collecting mat with raised edges may suffice. The collected water can then be cleaned. Inagro has used the Sentinel service for this for years. This is a mobile cleaning installation that farmers can order at home.
Inagro not only wants to raise awareness with the car wash for sprayers, it also wants to put another project in the spotlight: the point pollution loan depot. Since this spring, (free) materials have been made available at five points spread across West Flanders for collecting spray residues and rinsing water, such as a rinsing mat and pump, an IBC container and a rinsing tray. It is a joint project of Inagro, the province of West Flanders and a number of other organisations. “We also want to use this to demonstrate that high investments are not always necessary to prevent point contamination by cleaning spraying installations,” says Vanwijnsberghe.
The project manager at Inagro emphasizes that in recent years much improvement has been made in dealing with point pollution. “More and more farmers are rinsing their spraying equipment in the field, while some farmers are also investing in a water treatment plant on the farm.”
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